


Upon the Banks of the Lethe

by Merfilly



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology, Orpheus and Eurydice - Virgil's Georgics
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 06:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3477704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Persephone visits the maiden, and finds something new in her cold world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Upon the Banks of the Lethe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Port](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Port/gifts).



The dead moved out of the way of the Lady of their demesnes, knowing full well that she was the temper of Spring, the lashing of Winter all in one form.

One of the dead, recently bereaved for a second time, sat by the river, contemplating the forgetfulness it would bring. It was to this soul that Persephone made her way to, already raising a hand to ensure the woman did not try to rise.

Eurydice did not have the energy to even try, and looked up in disconsolate anger at this author of her misery. "Why must you make it so difficult upon him, when he braved his way to you, played his best for you?" she asked, fresh tears finding their way to the river that promised peace to all who drank of it.

The goddess smiled, somewhat cold in demeanor, but she took a place upon the bank near her hapless victim. "It is the way of the Underworld, to never let loose those who come within, Eurydice. Your love was clever and skilled, and had won his way through, yes, but imagine a world where the dead roamed freely? Imagine, if upon hearing his exploits, every bereaved lover came with gifts and bravery to reclaim their own?"

"You chose a task that he could not have met, for my well-being was his sole motivation," Eurydice told her in a woeful tone.

"Yes, to protect the natural order. Better you turn your anger to the asp that took you from him than to hold a grudge for me, or my husband." Persephone waved her hand, and the bank around them bloomed in fragrant colors of the spring she held sway over. "It is clear that he will not stay parted from you for long, dear maiden. So perhaps you can spend the time waiting for him with your hands busy at the crowns he should wear in accolade of his daring skill?"

Eurydice looked stricken anew. "Orpheus has so much to give to the world!"

"And yet, it is only you he thinks of," Persephone said, beginning a crown of her own. "It must be such a wonder to know love so deep, for when I looked to his heart, there was not a thought of possession, only love." The woman she sat with smiled the tender expression of true love, and Persephone felt a stirring in her own heart. For the maiden there had only been joy until the sorrow of death, and that was not something the goddess knew for herself.

"When Orpheus's eye landed upon me, and he began to court me with song and deed, I was tempted to say no," Eurydice said. "Not for lack of desire to be his wife, but because I was but a maiden and he had the mark of a Hero. How could I compare to the adulation of all Greece, for such is his prowess not a city would ever turn him from her walls?"

"And yet?" the goddess pressed, as the maiden finally gathered blooms to begin a crown befitting her love.

"Eros, and his pointed arrows would hear nothing but completion of the bond I had denied, for they pricked my heart and made me incapable of thinking of more than Orpheus's happiness." Eurydice looked coyly at the goddess. "Is it not such for you?" she asked boldly.

"There is duty."

This made the maiden frown. "Your mother wept and scoured the earth bare in her grief, yet you must turn aside from her house for duty alone?"

Persephone stopped plaiting the crown in her hands, considering those words and what she had. "My husband is firmly in love with me, I tell you in truth. But as with most men, it is a soft emotion that was foreign to him and leaving him with little idea how to press his suit. So he did abscond with me from my fields, and kept me here until I relented and broke fast with forbidden treats of the underworld. For such sin, on mine and his part both, I stay to rule the dark months, and go to my mother in the light."

"But you love him not?"

"Perhaps it is that I do not know what love truly may be, for I was younger than you in my innocence, with no choice as to my husband." Persephone resumed braiding the strands of the flowers together; her crowns were eternal despite the fleeting nature of the blooms, and she wished a fine gift to ease the maiden's heart.

"Tell me, mistress of the dead, when Orpheus does find his end, will he find me swiftly?" Eurydice asked, catching thought of a way to mend the grief and perhaps have happiness here that did not rely upon the waters of the Lethe.

"If his heart remains true, how could he not?" Persephone asked in turn. "Yet ways could be made to speed such reunions, once his soul belongs to the underworld." She looked at the maiden, catching a glimmer of the thoughts in her heart. "You could earn such," she invited.

Eurydice smiled then, her loss settling into the ache of knowing her love would join her too swiftly, yet tempered by thoughts of their reunion. "Perhaps it is to me he should come swiftly, so that I might enjoin him to share the secrets of love with your lord husband."

"And would he be so willing to part with the secret that so few men learn?" Persephone asked. "Perhaps it is that my heart was cast in cold iron, immune to the pointed arrows of Eros."

"That is the other side of this, mistress of the dead," Eurydice said, her nimble fingers working the crown deftly. "I would need to be there to advise you, try and teach you those things that perhaps you had no time to learn in your days as the eternal maid."

Persephone felt her lips twitch in a smile that was more for the maiden's presumption than any mirth. "Truly?"

Eurydice met her eyes steadily. "What friends have you taken in this eternal realm to help you mature from maid to matron, my lady? Could it not alleviate at least some of the darkness around you to try such?"

Persephone finished the last of the weaving on her own crown, and then drew it up, placing it on Eurydice's hair lightly, enjoying the sight of it there. "I accede to the request, my gracious maiden, and you shall attend me in my hall until such time as I grow bored, or find either punishment or reward for your boldness in this matter."

Eurydice smiled, eyelids fluttering, before she finished the last of her crown. It was meant for Orpheus, but with the gift she had been granted, that had to change. She lifted it up, placing it on the goddess's perfect hair.

"May I ever please you, and Orpheus please your lord, so that you both learn the joy we already have known."

Persephone nodded, rising, and Eurydice, now her handmaiden, quickly followed to begin her new station in death.


End file.
